Following their decisive 2-0 opening week, Dexerto asked FlyQuest’s Impact about the new FlyQuest roster. He also gave his opinion on Team Liquid’s disastrous first week of play, saying that the team had “no goal” when he played against them.
The LCS power rankings have been shattered by the first week of play in many ways. Teams like CLG and Cloud9 that were rated lower due to keeping most of their roster have since proven themselves to be a credible threat. TSM had a surprisingly strong opening as well, with their new team coming together and bringing a lot more heat than LCS fans expected.
Meanwhile, Team Liquid fell flat in week 1. Spring 2022 MVP Summit and world champion jungler Pyosik headlined one of North America’s most hyped rosters. TL tried to change their direction after spending big last year on a roster that didn’t even make it to international competition.
It’s too early to say for sure that Team Liquid is a bad roster, but their first week left a lot to be desired. While it’s anyone’s guess as to what’s going wrong with TL, Jeong “Impact” Eon-young had more than just a guess as to why the team went 0-2 in the opening weekend.
FLY Impact felt like Team Liquid had “no goal” in-game
Team Liquid has a lot of time to put out fires within the regular season, and it’s not unheard of for a team to take some time to warm up and become better through the year. Cloud9 is a case-and-point example of this, proving themselves to be NA’s strongest team in 2022 after struggling through the Summer Split.
That said, expectations for Team Liquid were set high coming into the LCS. Their first showings in the LCS haven’t given fans and analysts faith in the roster.
Having played against Team Liquid in scrims and on-stage, Impact had his own opinion on why Team Liquid isn’t as strong as everyone anticipated. If his feelings on the team are right, they’ve got an uphill battle ahead.
But to understand Impact’s perspective on Team Liquid, it’s important to first understand his mentality when it comes to League of Legends. When asked about his lane matchup against TL’s Summit, he prefaced with this:
“I think I’m ahead of people with what’s gonna happen. I know what’s gonna happen in my lane after 30 seconds.”
Impact knows that GP not only scales, but has a favorable matchup into Jax. This then forced Team Liquid’s attention to top lane, something he handled very well.
Despite repeated gank attempts from Pyosik, they couldn’t shut Impact down. He never once fell for Summit’s bait, and came out of the lane phase as a late game monster. When trying to shut him down in the top lane didn’t work, Team Liquid had a hard time finding other ways to win.
“They had to gank top to help Jax, but they can’t do it because I’m freezing the wave. That’s my job that game.”
Impact clearly did a good job considering he survived immense lane pressure from Pyosik and managed to be a late game menace despite all that jungle attention. Impact said that TL couldn’t find a way to shut him down and lacked other winning strategies.
“That’s why it was one-sided, because they don’t try and make plays and think about how they can break that situation.”
This led to a broader conversation about Team Liquid. Having talked to Impact after TL lost to TSM, they were 0-2 when the interview was conducted. And, if Impact’s analysis of the team rings true, there may be even more losses ahead.
“I’m just thinking, like, their LCS team now… I dunno, it’s kind of weird? When I’m watching them, there’s no goal. You know what I mean?” Impact went into a whirlwind of thoughts about how League of Legends should be played when it comes to team synergy, and explained that Team Liquid didn’t show many of these characteristics through their play so far.
He gave an example of what he meant by talking about the way Team Liquid plays through side lanes.
“Side pushing is more about teamfights, anyways. People think that side pushing is about getting gold more— I mean, you can do that, but it’s not, like— side pushing isn’t game-winning. You need the next step.”
What Team Liquid is lacking in Impact’s eyes is that next step, the foresight to see what it takes to win a game rather than what’s needed to put yourself ahead individually.
“When I watch Team Liquid, I can’t see their goal.”
Meanwhile, FlyQuest is off to a great start. Impact felt like the team still has some work to do, but he seemed happy with where they were at for now. “Everyone’s great. We’re not even communicating that much because people aren’t speaking English very well, but we’re playing well.”
It’s been a good start for FlyQuest, one of two North American super teams defined by big-name talent from Korea. They’ve left Team Liquid in the dust so far. Whether or not TL can find themselves and take their expected place as one of the top teams in the LCS remains to be seen.
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